


Count the Ways

by eeyore9990



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Derek Comes Back, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Needs A Hug, Light Angst, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Pre-Slash, True Alpha Scott McCall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-02 06:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5238728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeyore9990/pseuds/eeyore9990
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A phone call from Melissa brings Derek back.  </p><p>or </p><p>Even True Alphas fall down sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count the Ways

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liliaeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liliaeth/gifts).



> Liliaeth, your love for Scott rang so clear in your sign up that it made me swell with my own feelings for him until they spilled across the page. You wanted family, pack, Scott's feelings about everything that's happened to him, and the growing relationship between him and Derek. I can only hope this meets with your approval.

> "Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens." —LOUIS PROTO

  
The vibration of his phone made Derek look down. _Scott_ the screen informed him, and Derek hit the button on his steering column to answer, his gut tightening with fear over what Scott could be calling about.

"Scott?"

_"No, it's Melissa, I— I'm using Scott's phone. I didn't have your number and—"_

"Is he okay? Melissa, is Scott okay?" Derek jerked the wheel to get him onto the exit he'd nearly been past, setting the drivers behind him honking. "Melissa?"

 _"He's not injured,"_ she said after a pause. _"But he's… Derek, I don't know what to do for him. I don't know how to help him. What do I do?"_

Derek pulled in to an abandoned gas station, threw the car in park, and unwrapped his tense fingers from the steering wheel, flexing his claws as he read the fear and heartbreak in Melissa McCall's voice. A woman who had stood calm in the face of a supernatural hurricane was falling apart on the phone to him and somehow, regardless of all the ways he'd nearly destroyed her life, she was calling him for help. "What happened?"

And she told him. She told him everything she knew about what had happened since that day in Mexico, since Derek had driven off, put California in his rear view and tried to forget all the horrors it held. Guilt clawed at him as he listened and when she finally slowed, when her voice trailed off after a whispered, _he's so young and so scared_ , he said the only thing he could say.

"I'm coming home."

* * *

"This is where it started," Derek said, kicking one foot through the leaves that had gathered. "This is where Peter bit you."

Scott's head came up, his eyes wide and a little wounded. A _lot_ wounded. "Wha—how do you know? How do you know this is where it happened?"

"I was tracking the rogue at the time, remember? I smelled him here, and you. Your blood, your fear. But there was no body. I knew right then that there was another werewolf in town, a _new_ werewolf. I should have tracked you that night, but I tracked him instead." Guilt pressed on Derek for that failing. So much could have gone wrong, _should_ have gone wrong.

"Hey." Scott's hand on his shoulder brought him out of that spiral of self-doubt and bitter recriminations. "He was the bigger danger. You know that now and you knew it then. You found me when it mattered."

Derek looked up, looked into the overwhelming compassion in Scott's eyes. They'd both made the hard choice now but instead of growing sullen and withdrawn like Derek had, Scott was still reaching out. Still steeped in _goodness_. 

It's why he was a True Alpha.

Standing straighter, Derek leaned in to Scott's touch, accepting it, feeling it flowing through him. He smiled then and gestured around them. "This is where it started," he repeated, his hand coming up to lay over Scott's. "Think about that."

A faraway look on his face, Scott stared down, his mouth tightening as he did what Derek asked. "I hated it. Hated him, you, everything about it. You said it was a gift, but…" He gasped raggedly, looking up automatically as his eyes went wet. "I was so scared, all the time. Still am. Before the bite, if I ran too hard or got too emotional, I couldn't breathe. Asthma. But now? Now I feel like I can't breathe _all the time_ , because there's a weight on my chest. I go through the list in my head, wonder who's next? Who'll be next to die? And will I be the one to kill them?"

Derek stepped forward, wrapping his arms gently around Scott and tugging him closer. He settled his hand on the nape of Scott's neck, urging him to press forward, to bury his nose in Derek's neck and scent him, smell pack and hope and peace. "All we can do is our best," he murmured, fingers scritching up into the hair at the back of Scott's head. "We fight what needs fighting and gather close to each other when the days are too long with a quiet that stretches our nerves. We trust in pack, we draw strength from it. These are the things I should have taught you when you were first turned."

"I fought you every step of the way." Scott's voice was muffled against Derek's neck, his body sagging so much if Derek stepped back, he'd slump right to the ground.

"I gave you every reason to fight me. I spent so long holding my anger to my chest, using it as my anchor, that I fed that anger into the pack. It's why everything went so badly. It's why…" Derek closed his eyes and breathed through the pain of dull, aching loss. "But you shined through it all. You learned how to use love to control yourself. Love, not anger. You had no true support, but you managed to draw a pack to yourself, a _strong_ pack. You led and you fought and you won, you trusted them and they trusted you. And you were only a beta, a newly-bitten beta. You understood more of pack than I, a born wolf, did."

"My mom was terrified of me. I betrayed my friends. I betrayed _you_ —"

"Shh. Your mom was processing an entirely new world. She was never terrified _of_ you, only _for_ you. You are her _son_ , Scott, and her introduction to this world was of death and violence and destruction and all the threats were aimed right at _you_. Can you really blame her for a few days of panic at the thought of you in harm's way? When you were human, she could control the threats to your health. She's a nurse. But now, you heal every cut and scrape… What is there that she can control?" Derek thought back to Melissa's call that had started all this, remembered the devastation in her voice, the fear. Not of any of the creatures that they'd faced in the months of Derek's absence, but fear for her son, for _Scott_. 

"Your friends would walk through fire for you. They would bleed and die and kill for you. They are pack by choice, not by bite. You earned their devotion a thousand times over. Yes, mistakes were made in the learning. We make mistakes, Scott. It's part of our nature to make mistakes. It's how we grow. But you have never let your mistakes define you… don't start now. Don't let small hurts lead to bigger ones."

Smoothing a hand down Scott's back with a sense of finality, Derek waited for him to hold his own weight and then stepped back. 

"It's also in our nature to be wild things. To run and take pleasure in the chase. To feel the earth under our feet and the sun at our back." Shifting into beta form, Derek smiled wide around a mouthful of teeth. "Will you run with me, my Alpha?" he asked, and howled with a fierce joy when Scott shifted with him.

And then they _ran_.

* * *

Scott kept pace with Derek easily, and as he ran, he felt the energy bleeding through the bond they shared, feeding it and strengthening it. That bond stretched out then, Derek pushing it to touch the forest around them, to guide him on their run. Scott realized quickly that Derek was showing him how to feel the territory. Feel it not as a burden, but as a piece of him; a part of his soul.

The territory felt him as well, acknowledging him and accepting him as its guardian in a way he'd never felt before. At the heart of the territory, the Nemeton thrummed with awareness, making Scott stumble to a halt, suddenly chilled. 

Derek slowed ahead of him, turning as he did, and as they looked around, they both recognized the place they'd been running to. The place Scott had been running _from._

The large structure with the metal siding, the age-rusted spiral cut into its side, stood in the middle of the clearing. Scott shivered as Derek walked over to it, a noise of protest bubbling out of him when Derek reached up and touched the jagged metal. 

Glancing over his shoulder, Derek smiled at him, a muted thing, filled with its own memories. "It can't hurt me now," Derek said softly, turning back. "It actually… this is where things got better."

"Better?!" The word burst from Scott, incredulity driving his voice high.

"I was a beta again already." Derek closed his eyes, that smile transforming into something soft with wonder. "The best thing I ever did with that Alpha power was use it to heal Cora. I was never meant to be Alpha."

Scott wanted to say something, to deny that, but words wouldn't come. Derek must have sensed his unease because he laughed and shook his head, coming over to stand near Scott again.

"I was _never_ meant to be Alpha. I stole the power from Peter, who stole it from Laura. Mom must have realized she was dying for Laura to get it because… otherwise it would have died with her in the fire." Derek bowed his head, the scent of grief filling the air until Scott moved forward, pulling _Derek_ into _his_ arms. Derek allowed it easily, brushing his cheek along Scott's shoulder. "You though, you wear it easily. I can't tell you what it was like to watch you become Alpha."

He didn't have to. Scott felt it, felt the awe and wonder and _relief_ that rolled off Derek in waves as the memory played out. Those feelings that were foreign to Scott, because all he could feel when he thought of the weight on his shoulders was fear, anxiety, the feeling of running too fast and still being too slow. Of blood spilt.

"Hey," Derek pulled back, cupping Scott's face with his hands and forcing some serious eye-contact on him. "You are the best thing that has happened to this territory in my lifetime. Never doubt that." Then Derek dropped his hands and turned, beckoning Scott to follow him into the building. 

The odd, echoing quality of the acoustics brought Scott back to that moment. To the darach inside the circle of mountain ash. Remembered fear and anger bled through him as he walked over to the spot, his hand held up like he'd be able to feel the wall of magic holding him out.

His hand passed neatly through the air.

"You're a True Alpha. The magic that makes us what we are recognized something in your _spirit_ , Scott. It saw into your heart, into your soul, and found you worthy of power. It was right. That power has a home inside you, and you treat it with the respect it deserves."

"What good is it, though?" Scott asked, turning to Derek with shoulders slumped. "So many people dead. I couldn't save them!" 

Derek didn't say anything to that, not a word to refute it. But as Scott stood there, staring at him, waiting for some response, for some _condemnation_ , he felt something else. He felt faith and swelling pride, a deep and profound respect, the emotions soft and warm as they pulsed toward him and surrounded him. He _felt_ Derek's trust and was nearly sent to his knees at that because…

"Why?" he asked, shaking his head. 

"When you were first turned, I told you the bite was a gift. I didn't realize then how true that was. But Scott, the gift was not _to_ you, it was _of_ you. You are the gift. Your strength and compassion and hope are the gift this world needs. Strength that has been tested, compassion when there is none to be found, and hope in a time of darkness and chaos. You have suffered loss that would bring anyone else to their knees… and yet you still stand." 

Derek let his eyes bleed blue, and power crackled through the air as he tilted his chin, showing Scott his bare throat. "I am happy to know you as you are now, I respect the man you have become, and I am proud to call you my Alpha."

Scott felt his hands trembling at his sides even as something huge and powerful built within him. It swelled and grew, pressing against his lungs until he could only throw his head back and howl. Derek's cry joined his, deep and resonant in a way his human voice could never be. In the distance, Liam responded, then Malia. Through the bond, Scott could feel the rest: Mason and Parrish, Kira and Lydia and Stiles. His mom, the Sheriff. There was even a pull from Isaac, further away but solid. He could feel his pack, all of them, with all their broken pieces. He could _feel_ them.

The anguish that had been dragging at his soul for months dropped away, slithering off his shoulders like a wet blanket. 

His pack was strong; it had been tested and tried and it had proven itself _fierce_.

When the last note left his throat, Scott turned blazing red eyes on Derek and grinned. 

"Catch me if you can."

* * *

Melissa left the room filled with chattering teenagers and walked into the kitchen, a small smile curving her lips as she found Derek. And then, without a single pause in her step, she walked up to him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a nearly strangling hug.

"Thank you," she whispered, blinking back tears of gratitude. "I don't know what you did, or what you said, but you've brought him back to us. Thank you."

Derek squeezed her gently, almost hesitant in the contact. "Thank you for calling me," he finally said. "Thank you for trusting me with this."

The energy in the room shifted and Melissa pulled back, releasing Derek as she turned to see Scott framed in the doorway, his expression soft and fond as he watched his mother and … Melissa didn't know what to call Derek. Friend seemed too pale a word. Packmate wasn't even enough.

"Thank you _both_ ," Scott said, looking between them. 

The warmth of the unconditional love she felt for her son was reflected back to her in his eyes, but when he turned that look on Derek, Melissa's breath caught. She had to glance away, had to bite her lip and stifle an instinctive laugh. It was too small still, too new and fragile to acknowledge yet, but she thought maybe…

Maybe that call had helped in more ways than she'd bargained for.


End file.
